This weekend, the CHS debate team placed 4th at the state tournament.  Munster took first place, with Carmel and West Lafayette following behind in second and third place.  Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the State tournament was held virtually.  

“I’m disappointed to not win but I’m not at all disappointed in the kids on the team.  We made the conscious choice not to push kids during a pandemic changed season and dampened the drive that usually helps us win,” says head coach, Christopher Lowery.

In Policy Debate, sophomores Freedom Eiden and Jonathan McClure were in the top 8 competitors along with seniors Ryan Donovan and Ethan Dibble.  Juniors Mark Jewison and Milena Veltri took first place in Policy and became this year’s state champions.

“I am really happy with our performance this weekend. When I started debate it was always a huge goal of mine to eventually win state, so to be able to accomplish that was really rewarding and exciting. I’m also super thankful I have such a great partner as Mark because he was really the reason we made it so far,” says Veltri about their state win. 

In Public Forum Debate, juniors Emma Ekblaw and Sidney Pittman made it to the top 16 competitors along with seniors Luke Vetroczky and Tim Wheeler.

In Lincoln-Douglas Debate, senior Hattie Hoham and junior Nathan Osborn made it to octafinals, while senior Bella Auricchio made her way to semifinal round.

In Congress, junior Trina Gonzalez made it to the top 24 competitors and junior Peyton Day placed 9th overall.

Even though the State tournament did not turn out the way that the team would have liked, they are still confident in how they performed.  

“I feel the team performed really well this weekend and was unlucky to not place higher. Although it was a disappointing result, we all handled the unusual circumstances really well and had a few close calls that could’ve gone the other way and given us more points to push us up in the rankings,” states Ryan Donovan